Zuko Spills Tea on Katara
by NonsensicalLyrics
Summary: one shot written for arana suteshi as part of the 2011 KZ Secret Santa over at lj. requests filled: "Jasmine Dragon - Katara didn't run away" and "Healing session"


A/N: Where it originally ended really felt like the natural place to end, but since it was so short and was meant as a present I threw in a little follow up with shameless amounts of fluff. It's still awfully short all together – I tend towards brevity more than I'd like . I'm also afraid they might be a little out of character – after rewatching the episode I don't think it's too much of a stretch, though. Zuko was like something out of the Twilight Zone for the first half of it anyway. Enjoy!

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><p>When Katara entered the tea shop she found herself surrounded by the soft chattering of excited customers and the clink of china against china, Momo's head twisted around and his eyes darting in every direction from where he sat on her shoulder.<p>

"My daughter says that the new owner makes the best tea in all of Ba Sing Se!" a short, plump woman told her friend as they waited for their order. Both women wore their graying hair in elaborate and rather ridiculous looking do's bedecked with bright flowers. Katara took a seat at the table next to them, facing the doorway with her back to the kitchen. Momo immediately hopped from her shoulder and glided down to a chair next to hers.

"How does your daughter know that?" asked the other woman, a tall elegant lady with a long nose and large chin. "Where was he serving tea before the Jasmine Dragon opened?"

"Oh, he was working at a teashop in the _lower ring_." The last two words were said in a stage whisper that prompted Momo to turn around in his chair to face them, his little lemur hands holding onto the back of the chair, wide eyes focused on the women.

"Tai Mei kept hearing rumors about this wonderful tea and she just had to go see it for herself – or I guess taste it," the woman giggled.

Her friend made a tsking sound. "That's just like children, going out of their way to rub elbows with refugees, not caring how it looks. Just last week my oldest son-" Momo interrupted her with an excited shriek as he scrambled up onto the top of the backrest and reached over to grab a large orange flower from the woman's hair.

"What on earth!" the woman shrieked, leaning as far away from the lemur as possible and nearly falling out of her chair. "Keep that little beast of yours away from me!" she snapped at Katara. Her friend had to place a doughy hand over her mouth to keep from laughing.

"No, Momo! Bad!" Katara scolded as she stood up from her seat to intervene. "I'm very sorry, that's really not like him at all," she lied, picking up a protesting Momo and moving him to the seat on her other side. "I think he just likes your flowers."

The offended woman just sniffed and stood up to move to a different table, lightly touching her hair to make sure everything was still in place. The shorter woman followed, still trying not to giggle.

Katara gave a Momo a look. The lemur folded his ears and trained his eyes downward, doing his best to look guilty. Satisfied, the waterbender returned her attention to the menu. It wasn't long before their waiter appeared.

"What can I get for you, ma'am?" He was a slightly stout young man several years her senior, with a handsome, boyish face. Katara glanced back at the menu, touching her index finger to a line.

"Could I please have a cup of orange blossom tea?"

"Very good choice, that's my favorite. Are you sure you wouldn't like to order a whole pot? It's only a few coins more, and it's so delicious you'll certainly be glad you did." The server gave a charming smile and Katara couldn't keep the corners of her mouth from turning up too. She glanced towards Momo; the lemur stared at her with wide green eyes and blinked once before cooing and picking at something behind his ear.

"One pot of orange blossom tea, please," she said to the server.

"Coming right up," he said with a wink. Katara watched as he walked away, blushing lightly. When she turned back to the table she was met again by Momo's bulbous eyes. He chattered and put his face in hands, shaking his head.

"Oh, be quiet," Katara snipped.

Meanwhile in the back of the shop, Zuko whistled to himself as he returned from his lunch break through the employee door. He couldn't remember the last time he had been in this good a mood. Since his fever had broken he felt like the spirits had given him a second a chance and he was determined not to waste it. He grabbed his apron and pushed open the door to the main room.

"Oh good, Lee, you are back from you break," came his uncle's voice from where the old man stood at the counter tending to a pot of tea. "Bring this orange blossom mix to table six, and if you see Tahnu tell him he may take his break when he's ready."

"I'm on it, Uncle." Zuko carefully took the small tray with the very full teapot and cup and made his way around the counter and into the dining area.

"Tahnu," he said, catching the young man's attention when he passed near. "I'm back from my break; you can take yours whenever you're ready."

"Great!" He was one of several waiters hired in preparation for the opening of the restaurant, but if they continued to be as busy as they had been they would need to hire more. Tahnu, who was a couple of years older than the former prince, had come with excellent references and had an ease with the customers that Zuko knew he could never hope to duplicate, even on his sunniest of days.

"Hey, is that the orange blossom for table six?" the older boy asked, pointing to the tray in scared boys hands. When he nodded Tahnu just grinned and elbowed him – nearly causing him to spill the tea – and said "lucky" before head back towards the kitchen. Zuko shook this off and continued towards table six, being very careful now the entire way not to spill any tea.

He was concentrating so hard on the contents of his tray that he didn't notice who it was that was sitting at table six until he was standing right by the customer's chair and he saw that white bat thing tugging at her sleeve and chattering, frantically trying to get her attention. The water tribe girl turned her head to see what it was her pet was pointing at. Her eyes widened in recognition.

"You!" she gasped. As she shot up she pushed her chair backwards into Zuko, causing him to lose his balance and trip. The piping hot orange blossom tea, prized for its calming effects, splashed all over the hand and forearm the girl was using to point accusingly at her tea server as the china tumbled to the floor, shattering to pieces.

Everyone in the shop stopped at the tell-tale sound of breaking dishes and all eyes were trained on the pair, the silence broken only by the bat-thing's cries of distress – though he seemed more upset about the tea having been spilled then anything.

Momentarily stunned, a rough jab in the arm from the flying mammal brought Zuko back to earth.

"Oh shi- shoot!" He look down to the floor where shivers of porcelain littered the floor before looking back up to see that the skin of the girl's arm was already turning an angry red. "Spirits, I am so sorry!" Before she could even react he grabbed her other arm and practically carried her to the back, apologizing the entire time.

He pushed the girl into the backroom, the bat-thing flying in behind them just before the door closed, and quickly located a bucket that he filled with water an ice.

"Here, put your arm in the water," he said, taking her arm as gently as he could in his panic.

Katara for her part was still too shocked to protest. She watched in confusion as the angry boy who had on multiple occasions shot balls of fire straight at her tenderly administered to a minor scald. He wrapped a chunk of ice in a wet cloth and held it to her skin, dabbing down her forearm to her wrist and hand, carefully administering to each individual finer.

"I'm so sorry," he said again, the distress bleeding out where his voice cracked. "I didn't mean to… Here, keep this on your arm, I'm going to ask Uncle if we have any aloe." He thrust the cloth into her uninjured hand and turned to go back out into the main room.

Katara looked at her arm and for the first time began to register the pain dancing against her nerves. She hissed between her teeth and quickly called the water in the bucket to her and held it to the burn, preparing to heal herself.

"Don't worry, I can heal…" she started to say, but Zuko was already gone. Momo perched on a shelf by the door, tugging his ears down worriedly. Katara just sighed and proceeded to heal her arm. It took only moments; it wasn't a very serious burn and on its own it probably would have only taken two or three weeks to heal.

When she was finished Katara let the water fall back into the bucket and rubbed absently at the newly healed skin. What was the prince doing here of all places, in a tea shop? Her first instinct had been to stop him before he did any damage, but, what would that be? Well, he _had_ just scalded her arm, but he seemed genuinely upset about the accident if his repeated apologies and frantic efforts to tend to the burn were any indication. And he was an outlaw in the Fire Nation now, too, if all those wanted posters were to be believed.

Just then the subject of her thoughts came through the door holding a dustpan full of broken china.

"All better," Katara said before he could say anything. "I healed myself with waterbending."

Zuko blinked in surprise. "Oh." He nodded dumbly and stood there for another moment before walking to a trashcan near the back door and dumping the shards. When he was finished with this he turned to face her, fidgeting awkwardly with the dust pan. Momo stared at them curiously from his spot above them, his head cocked to the side.

At last Zuko spoke. "My uncle gave me the rest of the afternoon off," he said, scratching at the back of his neck with his free hand. "He thought that, um, after I made sure your arm was okay, that we should probably talk…"

"Oh." It was Katara's turn to nod.

"I'm not going to hurt you," the boy rushed to assure her, holding his hands out benignly. He realized a second to late that he still held the dust pan and quickly shoved it onto the counter behind him, blushing.

"I know," Katara said. "I mean, I sort of gathered that…" she trailed off, rubbing the arm that he had been ministering to minutes before. Zuko groaned.

"I'm so sorry, it was an accident. I didn't meant to –"

"No," she cut him off. "It was obviously an accident. Don't worry about it. No harm done, right?" The waterbender tried to smile a little, hoping it didn't look as awkward as it felt.

As if to show that he too had no hard feelings about the incident, Momo leaped from the shelf and glided onto Zuko's shoulder, surprising the boy and making him jump and knock his head painfully against a cabinet. Katara winced in sympathy, but had to bite her lip to keep from laughing at the frightened face he made when Momo started to pick through his hair, looking for bugs.

"Don't worry, he's just… uh… grooming you," the girl explained. This didn't seem to reassure Zuko very much judging by his face, but his shoulders did relax somewhat.

"So… um, do you want to go somewhere?" Katara offered "To talk I mean. I'd suggest tea, but, you probably get enough of that here."

The former prince grimaced . "Yeah, you can say that again..." They both chuckled, and Zuko tentatively reached out to pat Momo on the head.

"There's a really nice park just down the road, if you want to go there," Katara suggested.

Zuko nodded. "Yeah, okay. That sounds good." He opened the back door and let Katara go out first, remembering at the last minute to take off his apron. He tossed it on the counter before following her, Momo flying out ahead of them.

_the end._

actually, wait, no, just kidding!

~EXTRA SPECIAL SUPER BONUS FLUFF TAGGER~

He told her everything. Once he started he couldn't stop, each word tugging the next one out behind it until every step of the journey he'd taken since the North Pole had been revealed. Katara listened intently while Momo flew through the trees chasing birds. It was like the days he spent in fever had boiled the self-loathing and anger and guilt from his heart and with Katara's guidance he was now pouring out these impurities. Did she have this effect on everyone? He pulled his gaze away from her earnest blue eyes and pressed on, turning over the hand that lay between them on the stone bench and flexing his fingers absently.

"…once my fever finally broke, I don't know – serving tea didn't seem so bad. I guess I was just happy for my uncle." He stared at his palm, tracing the lines with his eyes, until a small brown hand entered his plane of vision and wrapped itself around his fingers. Her skin was softer then he would have thought a peasant would have – but then, she did have healing powers. He found himself lightheadedly wondering what would have happened if she hadn't stumbled upon their tea shop and if he hadn't had the chance to tell her all this. If maybe all those impurities he had just excised would have found their way back into the mix.

Zuko tentative squeezed her fingers back before chancing another look at her eyes. A mistake. Those eyes coupled with the feel of her palm against his left him feeling naked. His heart beat raced and demanded he say something, anything.

"…and-and then you came in, and I burned your arm," he stuttered, entire face flushed. "But on accident this time!" he quickly amended. Great, remind her that you used to throws balls of fire at her and her friends. Stupid!

To his relief she didn't pull away in disgust having been reminded of just who it was she was currently holding the hand of. Quite the opposite, Katara laughed and mover her other hand so she could squeeze his in both of hers.

"Don't worry, Z- I mean Lee. I know you didn't do it on purpose." Zuko visibly sighed in relief, and she had to keep herself from laughing again.

The streetlights had already been lit, though neither noticed when, and the sun was only a faint glow peaking over the distant walls. Both needing to get back to where they belonged, they stood up from the bench. They held hands for a moment longer before coming to themselves and dropping it. Katara walked with him back to the tea shop in part awkward, part companionable silenced, Momo gliding behind them at a little distance.

At last they reached the backdoor.

"I…" Zuko swallowed. "Thank you. For listening."

Katara also swallowed before answering.

"You're welcome." A deep breath. "I won't tell anyone that you're here, so don't worry." And then before she could stop herself she was hugging him. After only a second or two of disbelief followed by uncertainty, Zuko hugged her back.

That night when they were in their separate beds, having said goodnight to their respective families, Katara would tell herself that she had only meant to kiss him on the cheek because he just seemed so lost and if anyone needed a kiss on a cheek it was him, while Zuko would tell himself that he had only meant to pull back a little so he could see her wonderful blue eyes again. Whatever they intended, what actually occurred was something like a kiss, noses bumping and lips pushing back into teeth, skin suddenly clammy while Momo chattered in the background, egging them on. What came after this was definitely a kiss, soft and hesitant, most likely initiated by Zuko, but, given how little Katara found herself objecting, who really knows. She had a weakness for the troubled type, and he had a weakness for her eyes.

Katara visited the Jasmine Dragon again the next day, this time without Momo, and this time Zuko didn't spill anything on her.

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><p>Happy Holidays :)<p> 


End file.
